


soft hearts, electric souls

by Siivin



Category: Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: AU in which Vivi pushed Arthur, Alternate Universe, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Roleswap
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-23 08:21:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30052599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Siivin/pseuds/Siivin
Summary: Vivi doesn't remember much about the cave. She does remember waking up in the hospital, down one arm and one best friend. But that's not going to stop her - she WILL find Arthur and bring him home, no matter what.If this haunted mansion and its disturbingly familiar ghost don't kill her first, of course.
Relationships: Arthur/Lewis/Vivi (Mystery Skulls Animated), Lewis/Vivi (Mystery Skulls Animated)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	soft hearts, electric souls

It was a good day, as far as Vivi had good days anymore.

She had slept through the previous night quietly, no green-tinged nightmares that she couldn’t quite remember upon waking, no Lewis shaking her out of a screaming night terror. She had awoken peacefully in the back of the van this morning, instead of jolting awake with a sob in her throat and the feeling of something being desperately, horribly  _ wrong _ in a way that she had no words for, that left her feeling jittery and guilty all day for reasons she couldn’t pin down -

Even her arm was cooperating today. No phantom limb pain so far and the cheap plastic of the prosthetic was barely even chafing! That alone was enough to put her in a good mood. But even better, they were on their way to a haunt! 

It had been a while since they’d been on a proper outing and they’d spent the better part of the day driving. With Lewis in the driver’s seat - Vivi had not been allowed to drive the van even before losing her arm, not after the traffic circle incident - and Mystery beside her, an upbeat tune pulsing from the speakers as the open countryside fell away behind them - well, it was just like old times. 

And if there was a looming absence hanging over the van - if Vivi still automatically turned to crack a joke to the empty backseat, if she still expected an arm to reach over her shoulder to fiddle with the radio dial, if her banter with Lewis occasionally faltered because the voice she was still expecting to back her up never came -

Well. If making herself miserable could bring Arthur back, she would have found him months ago. So despite the guilt whispering at the back of her mind she let herself smile at Mystery, and laugh at Lewis’s goofy jokes, and bob her head along to the music as the van’s failing AC tried valiantly to combat the late autumn sun.

It was a good day, as far as Vivi had good days anymore. 

So of course, just as it was drawing to a close and she was about to suggest finding a place to stop for the night, there was a pop, a loud crackle of static, and then the whining hum of dying electronics as the engine sputtered to a halt. Wonderful.

Lewis frowned as several turns of the key completely failed to produce any result. “Shoot,” he said. “Guess I shouldn’t’ve put off taking her to the mechanic, huh?” 

Vivi suppressed a sigh as she checked her phone to find it dead as well. It wasn’t Lewis’s fault he always forgot about van maintenance; it had never been his job before. And it was her that had been putting off visiting the shop. Lance had told her to keep the van - “don’t need that heap of junk takin’ up space here. May as well keep it where it’ll be some use,” he’d said gruffly, shoving the keys back at her when she’d tried to return them. But he’d barely been able to look at the van that had been Arthur’s baby, and asking him to work on it would just be a cruel reminder of his nephew’s absence. But at the same time, the thought of taking it somewhere else was just plain  _ wrong _ . So she’d put it off, and put it off, and now they were stranded in the middle of nowhere.

Or - were they? 

“Look!” Vivi said, pointing to a warm yellow glow just barely peeking through the wild tangle of trees on the side of the road. “I think there’s a house back there. Maybe they’ll let us use a phone!” 

Lewis turned the key a few more times to no avail. “That seems to be our best option,” he agreed. “Hopefully they’re friendly.” 

Vivi was already halfway out of the van, Mystery following close behind. 

She was surprised to find that the house seemed to be more of a mansion than anything, but it had definitely seen better days. The cracked, faded exterior was almost entirely hidden behind a wall of decaying vines, the peeling orange paint barely visible. Presumably it had once had a lawn, but it was now so overgrown as to be indistinguishable from the wilderness around it. The windows were spiderwebbed with cracks and coated with grime, but a golden light still shone from within. 

In short, it looked like a perfect haunted house. 

Vivi was practically bouncing with excitement by the time they reached the front door. She rapped heavily on the door with the ornate old-fashioned iron knocker and didn’t wait for a response before calling out. 

“Hello? Is anyone in there? We’re stranded and we saw your lights, so if we could use a phone or something that would be super helpful!” 

There was a moment of silence, and then the door creaked open of its own accord. 

Vivi made a noise that likely only Mystery could hear. “I can’t believe we just found a haunted house!” she squealed. 

“Well, let’s be careful,” Lewis said, glancing into the darkness as they stepped across the threshold. “We don’t know what might be in here, or if it might be dangerous.” 

“You’re right,” Vivi conceded. “We should start slow, maybe -” She stopped as a static hum buzzed through the air, making her hair stand up and filling the room with a palpable electric charge. Before she could respond, the air shifted suddenly as a loud crack rang out and the lamps lining the walls burst into life. Vivi swore she could actually see the electrical energy dart from one lamp to the next, until the entire room had been thrown into brilliant light. 

Lewis opened his mouth to caution her again, then sighed and closed his mouth as he saw the stars in her eyes, resigning himself to exploring whatever the mansion held. Mystery whined nervously next to him, but declined to say anything further. 

Now that the room was lit, Vivi could see that it was a large, airy foyer. A sweeping central staircase was the focal point of the room, dark wooden balustrades contrasting sharply with the white marble flooring and almost painfully white walls. A massive crystal chandelier shining with a brilliant white light hanging overhead completed the look. The entire room was elegant, tasteful, and - in contrast to the abandoned exterior of the building - completely immaculate, not a single spot or mark marring any surface.

“This is incredible,” Vivi breathed, examining the newly illuminated room. “Do you think this is all spectral manifestation? Must be a pretty powerful ghost to be - oh!” 

Around them, popping up out of seemingly nowhere, a group of small formless ghosts had appeared. They glowed a gentle gold, each with a heart-shaped patch of blue in the center. They swirled around the three investigators, cooing curiously. 

“Oh, aren’t you adorable!” Vivi said, eyes brightening even further. She reached towards one - 

-and immediately snatched her hand back with a yelp as the thing lunged forward, the sudden fangs and burning eyes a drastic contrast to the cute creature of only a moment ago. 

“Okay, time to go!” Lewis said, and the three of them took off for the nearest door with the little golden ghosts in close pursuit. Lewis reached the door first, throwing it open and barely waiting for Vivi and Mystery to make it through before slamming it shut against their pursuers. A couple of small thuds shook the door, indicating that the ghosts hadn’t quite been able to stop in time, and they all waited for a moment with bated breath to see what would happen. But apparently the ghosts either couldn’t get through the door or had lost interest, as the door remained firmly closed. 

All three of them breathed a sigh of relief. “Well that was certainly something,” Mystery said, sniffing at the door anxiously. “We’ll have to - Vivi, do NOT look at me like that! They were NOT cute!”

“They were!” Vivi said, looking at the door longingly. “They were adorable!”

“They attacked us!”

“Yeah, well, they were still cute,” Vivi said, shrugging. “And I wonder what they were? They don’t seem to have fully formed, I doubt any of them are powerful enough to have manifested all this. This place is fascinating, I wish I had my recording equipment!” 

“It is pretty cool,” Lewis admitted, turning to examine the room they had found themselves in. More lights had flared to life when they entered the room, illuminating what turned out to be a long hallway. Three sets of identical doors lined the walls, which were the same spotless white as the foyer. Not a speck of dust or dirt marred the clean white floors, and an oppressive silence seemed to smother all noise.

“I think this place is actually giving me the creeps more than cobwebs and grime would though,” Vivi said, inspecting a small end table holding a vase of tiger lilies. Each flower was perfectly formed and entirely scentless. “It just feels - weird.” 

“It definitely feels like we’re not wanted here,” Lewis agreed. “But like . . . in a really impersonal way? Like we’re staining it just by being here.”

Vivi shivered, turning away from the flowers. “Well,” she said cheerfully. It was gonna take a lot more than a really clean house to put her off. “That’s not gonna stop us! You hear that, spooky house? We’re gonna get to the bottom of this whether you like it or not!” 

The house remained unimpressed.

“Well, let’s get going!” Vivi said brightly. She turned and threw open a door at random, peering in curiously. Lewis crowded up beside her to look over her shoulder. 

“They really have a theme going, huh?” Lewis said. The room before them was some sort of sitting room in the same colorless palette as the hallway and foyer. White sofas and white chairs rested on a white carpet. The only color came from the orange throw pillows on the couches. 

“Ugh. This is just bad interior design,” Vivi said, wrinkling her nose. She took a few steps into the room. “I don’t really see anything that looks import -” 

She cut off, whirling in alarm as the door slammed shut behind her. She raced back to the doorway, tugging frantically at the handle. To her surprise, it swung open again easily and she fell backwards, landing with a thump on the plush carpet. 

“Oof, that was undignified,” she groaned, expecting to hear Lewis’s rich laughter and Mystery’s muffled snickering. Instead, her voice echoed into silence.

“Uhh . . . Lewis?” She said cautiously. No response. She got up and moved back towards the hallway, except -

The hallway was gone. The other side of the door now showed a large, empty rectangular room and Lewis and Mystery were nowhere to be seen.

“Huh,” Vivi said. She closed the door. She opened the door. The empty room greeted her again. “Okay I wish Lewis and Mystery were here but this is still amazing,” she whispered to herself.She took one last glance around the sitting room and then, lacking any better options, stepped back through the doorway.

She stepped out onto a white marble floor between two rows of white columns that ran down the room. The lamps on each column seemed to be focused on an black runner that lay between them, and for the first time their bright light didn’t quite reach the edges of the room, creating foreboding shadows at the edge of her vision. The runner ran all the way to the opposite end of the room where a lone piece of black furniture - a bookcase, maybe? A dresser? - stood tall. 

Shrugging, Vivi entered the room and walked briskly down the center of the columns, gazing around herself curiously. She was surprised and just a little disappointed when no ghost or specter jumped out at her as she walked, but the disappointment quickly faded when she reached the end of the room and realized that what she had mistaken for a piece of furniture was, in fact, a large black coffin - and it was creaking open.

Vivi’s eyes widened in excitement. Finally! This had to be the ghost that had created this place, or at least some kind of powerful spirit. And one with a real flair for drama at that! Maybe it needed to be laid to rest, or had an important message to pass on! 

She spared a moment to regret the ghost hunting equipment she had left in the van. Now would have been the perfect time to take some readings and make a recording. And she had to admit that if the spirit turned out to be hostile she might be in a spot of trouble without her tools, although she was confident in her ability to talk it down or at least stall it until Lewis and Mystery arrived. 

Still, this was an exciting moment! She waited with bated breath as the coffin lid finished creaking open, and a figure formed from the blackness inside.

The specter that emerged was . . . a little underwhelming at first, to be honest. Its black suit and orange dress shirt matched the formal aesthetic of the house, but despite its visible ribs and the gleaming skull floating atop the ensemble, it was hard to see it as a menacing figure. It might have been tall, but it seemed to be hunched in on itself, hands jammed in its pockets, skull glancing around nervously as if lost. Looking at it didn’t inspire fear. Instead Vivi just felt . . . sad. 

That is, until it caught sight of her.

“ _ You _ ,” the ghost snarled, and Vivi found herself stepping back instinctively at the sheer hatred in its voice. The ghost touched down to the ground and unfolded, drawing itself up to its full height, and a wave of spectral energy formed a spiky blonde head of hair.

She’d been right, the ghost seemed much bigger now that it wasn’t curled in on itself. The figure took a step forward, seeming to tower over her, and Vivi couldn’t help but take another step back at the twisted look of rage on its skull. 

“What, killing me once wasn’t good enough for you? Here hoping for a repeat?” The ghost’s voice was disdainful, but she could feel something hiding underneath it. A confusing mix of emotions, pain and anger and hurt all blending together. 

(Was that voice . . . familiar?)

“I think you’re confused,” Vivi said cautiously, hands held out in front of her like a peace offering. Newly-formed ghosts were often confused and single-minded, and they could be very dangerous if they weren’t willing to listen. Fortunately, she had some experience in talking them down. “I’m not the one who killed you. I’m -” 

The ghost laughed, an almost hysterical edge to it. “Wow, Vivi, and I always thought I was the coward of the group. But you can’t even admit to what you did, can you?” 

Vivi’s heart dropped, a horrible pit of dread opening in her stomach. She looked at the ghost again.

The shock of blonde hair. The familiar voice. And there - tucked up on his collar, where she hadn’t noticed before - a familiar collection of pins.

“How - how did you know my name?” She whispered. 

But she knew. 

“ _ Stop playing games! _ ” Arthur yelled. Golden energy started to flicker around him, crackling up and down his arms and playing over his skull. The lights behind him flickered wildly, one or two exploding in a shower of glass and sparks. “You already killed me once! That wasn’t good enough for you? You had to hunt me down and do it again? Is this some sort of  _ game _ to you? Are you just that  _ sadistic _ ?” 

The energy built to a crescendo and then all at once everything stopped. The lights settled back into their steady glow, and the energy vanished from Arthur’s form. The rage dropped suddenly from his face, and when he spoke again, it was a small, broken sound. 

“Did you really hate me that much?” 

“Arthur,  _ no _ ,” she breathed, and before she even processed the decision she was moving towards him. To do what she wasn’t even sure - to comfort him, to touch him, to convince herself it was really him, he was there,  _ she found him _ \- but she didn’t get the chance to find out. Before she made it two steps Arthur flung his hand out and the resulting wave of energy threw her backwards. She landed hard on the floor, knocking the wind out of her lungs.

“Don’t touch me!” he snapped, looking down on her as she tried to regain her breath. “Sorry, but this isn’t going to go like last time. I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve, and I’m not falling for your bullshit this time around.” 

“Arthur, please,” she wheezed, clutching at her chest. “You’re confused. I don’t know what you think happened, but I didn’t - I wouldn’t  _ ever _ -”

Arthur’s face grew dark again but before he had a chance to respond, a voice rang out, distracting them both. 

“Vivi? Vivi! Are you down here?” 

“Lewis?” Arthur whispered, turning towards the voice. His form flickered for a moment and he briefly pulled back in on himself, looking more like the Arthur Vivi knew. Vivi used the distraction to pull herself to a sitting position, rubbing at her chest as she finally regained her breath. That had hurt, damnit!

Lewis and Mystery emerged from the hallway and both froze in shock for a moment. Lewis’s eyes widened as he took in the scene, Vivi on the floor and the specter looming above her, and his face set in grim determination. 

“Hey! Get away from her!” He moved smoothly between Arthur and Vivi and set himself firmly in place, daring the ghost to do something about it. 

Instead, Arthur drifted back a few inches. His form had resolidified into its skeletal visage, and when he spoke his voice was bitter and spiteful. 

“I should have known. Of course you’d take her side. Were you in on it together? Or did Vivi just have the guts to do what you never could?”

Vivi’s attention was pulled away by Mystery nosing at her in concern, and with his support she pulled herself to her feet. 

“I don’t know who you are, but I think you’re confused,” Lewis said guardedly, and then flinched as the energy in the room spiked chaotically once again. 

“Stop telling me I’m confused!” Arthur yelled, more lights exploding behind him. The electrical energy dancing across his form had returned tenfold, and Vivi could feel her hair trying to stand up as the static energy in the room increased to an almost painful intensity. “I’m not confused! In fact, this is the first time I’ve been able to see clearly! I understand exactly what’s going on!”

Arthur waved an arm, and the room started to . . .  _ unfold _ . Panels in the wall started sliding and extending on mechanical arms. The ceiling folded upward, revealing complex gears and pulleys grinding away. Vivi yelped, stumbling into Lewis as the floor trembled and started to break apart, the large slabs of marble starting to retract into walls of whirring machinery. 

“What did you think was going to happen?” Arthur asked, floating untouched in the middle of the chaos he had created. His voice was bitter with hatred and Vivi could have cried to hear it directed at her. “Did you think you’d finally be free once you’d killed me? No more unwanted interruptions, no more pesky third wheels. Just the two of you together, on one long adventure, the way you always wanted it to be.”

“Arthur,” Vivi said, shouting to be heard over the sound of clanking gears and howling wind. “Arthur, please - we can figure this out -” 

“We could have figured this out before you killed me!” Arthur screamed, the energy surrounding him spiking wildly. “You could have said something!  _ You could have just told me to leave _ !” 

Vivi, Lewis, and Mystery were all scrambling now, trying to find a safe spot to stand as the floor continued to retract. Arthur continued to yell over the cacophony, voice growing manic with false cheer. “Well you know what? If you two want to be alone together so badly, fine! I’ll leave you to it! One last adventure. Just the two of you!”

“ _ Forever _ .” 

Vivi yelped as the patch of floor she was clinging to started to tilt downward. She flailed around wildly looking for something, anything to grab hold of, but she was stranded on this isolated piece of ground, the incline growing steeper and steeper until finally she slid off into the waiting darkness below. In her peripheral vision, she saw Lewis and Mystery falling as well, but she couldn’t take her eyes off the specter in front of her. 

For one brief moment she was almost glad of his skeletal figure. She didn’t think she could stand to see that look of rage and hatred on her best friend’s face. 

The last thing she saw was the skull’s expression twisting to suggest a mocking smirk as she fell. “Have fun!” Arthur sang, giving a little wave. And then, everything was black.

**Author's Note:**

> I am 100% going to finish this, but I have no idea when. But this has just been sitting in my drafts taunting me, so here please take it.


End file.
